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Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions

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Whether or not you're familiar with the story of Michael Jordan's Adonis Creed, you probably know Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa. The Italian Stallion has become an iconic figure in cinema, giving us some of the best boxing films ever, and it's this success that drove the reboot, if you will, of the universe, with Jordan at the helm as Adonis (the son of the legendary Apollo Creed). The recent movies are fantastic and provide another heartfelt and engaging take on the world of boxing, which is why it's no surprise that there are a few videogames based on them.

Previously, we had Creed: Rise to Glory, a virtual reality experience that used motion to drive the immersive feeling of being in the ring, but now, we have another from the same studio, Survios, called Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, an arcade take on the legendary universe that explores iconic moments in Rocky lore, and fills in the gaps with some lighter narrative adventures. It's a pretty polarising take on the IP, considering Rise to Glory puts you in the shoes of Adonis in the first-person perspective, whereas Creed Champions is more of a traditional fighter, seeing you have to mash combos together to whittle down the health bar of your opponent to knock them out.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions

It's not exactly a fighter like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, as Creed Champions isn't played from the side. You play almost over the shoulder of your boxer and can move around the ring to put distance between you and your opponent, manipulate them into bad spots, and to be able to use devastating combo blows. But, in terms of how the combat works, and the damage you deal, that plays similarly to a traditional fighter.

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Creed Champions comes with a deep move list that you can learn, to be able to unleash a range of attacks far beyond, jabs, straights, and uppercuts. You can duck and transition into a bodyshot, grapple opponents to land a crushing uppercut, even charge up a heavy attack that can break a defence and daze a foe. As you'd expect, these combos will require you to remember a sequence of inputs, and if you have the brain with the retention of a sieve like me, you'll probably just resort to a core few.

In terms of countering assaults, Creed Champions has a few mechanics designed to protect your boxer. You can put your gloves up to block and defend, use movement to dodge and evade, even block at the right time to parry (beware, as enemies will parry your parries, and you'll become stuck in a chain of parries until someone slips). The point is, this is a fighting game, but it's been designed with simplicity at the forefront, meaning it's far easier to pick-up and play than say Mortal Kombat 11, which can be a savage experience for a newbie.

As for winning a fight, the game has been fundamentally designed to be quite linear. You can't just knock someone out on the first down, and likewise can't have the same happen to you. Each fight will see you or your opponent's health bar eliminated three times before a special red health bar is put up. When this happens, the next down for that person will result in a knockout and the winner will be decided. It does ensure fights go longer, but being able to unleash a mega combo to leave your opponent drooling on the floor does feel like a missed opportunity. Granted, this design does give Creed Champions an approachable feeling, where you can't just be annihilated by an AI or another player and sent back to the locker room 30 seconds after starting a match.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed ChampionsBig Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions
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I've focussed mainly on the combat and the core mechanics up until now, because it's pretty much what Creed Champions offers. There is no defined storyline, rather mini-narratives that explore the history of key members of the Rocky world, and if you complete these experiences, you'll unlock new fighters to use in the future. For example, if you take Rocky's story, you'll have to fight Apollo, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, and a few other boxers, and at the end, you'll unlock Apollo to use in other parts of the game.

It's not all that well fleshed out, in fact the narrative feels like filler between fights more than anything, but there are at least a few minigames dotted in that help break it up, i.e. hitting the bags or jumping on a treadmill - all of which are played by tapping specific inputs as fast as possible to obtain the best score.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is a pretty concise fighter that doesn't do anything to make your jaw drop. That's not to say you won't have fun with it, because it genuinely is very entertaining. Someone looking for a casual fighter won't go too wrong with Creed Champions, but those versed in the genre, or anyone looking for a deep 'Rockyverse' videogame will have to wait or look somewhere else.

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed ChampionsBig Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed ChampionsBig Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions
06 Gamereactor UK
6 / 10
+
Very fun to play. Offers variety in its move list. Easy to pick up and learn.
-
Narrative is bland. Generally feels a bit empty. No motion support for Switch.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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